Resources > Encouraging prayer > Prayer groups > Some helpful group models and ideas for prayer
Some helpful group models and ideas for prayer
i) “ABC Model” – Split the group into threes. Each person is allocated as an ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’. Introduce to all a prayer topic. Give three prayer points linked to the topic, allocating one point per person (i.e. ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’) and let the triplets pray around their team. This multiplies prayer coverage; engages everyone; provides clear guidance. When you see the first group finish, invite everyone to draw their prayer to a close. To maintain pace, don’t wait for the last group to run out of steam!
ii) “Zones” – Split the room into zones (perhaps the four corners). Allocate a theme to a “host” in each zone. Provide the “hosts” with written prayer pointers. The rest of the people rotate the zones and spend a few minutes in each one.
iii) “Crying Out/Korean style” – we know that Jesus sometimes prayed in a loud voice and that the early church also ‘raised their voices together in prayer to God.’ This model of simultaneous corporate intercession is a mark of revival contexts around the world. You can pick a theme and let people pray into it for a set amount of time - three minutes or so. Not too long, to avoid people getting distracted or bored.
iv) “Pass the prayer” – Announce the prayer topic to all. Hand out a sheet with specific points related to topic listed on it. Someone in the group prays for the first, folds the sheet and passes it to their neighbour to pray and fold and pass it on. If numbers are too big create more than one circle.
v) “Praying the Scripture” – Although scripture was not written for the exact country or people you are praying for, it’s still a wonderful tool to pray over nations and people! Here are a few different ways you can pray through scripture:
• Read and pray
Take turns pray-reading verse-by-verse through a passage. After each verse, pray a prayer inspired by that verse. Then read through again, and after each verse is read, the person to the left of the reader prays a prayer inspired by that verse. Read passage again and emphasise one word as you read through the verse and pray off the emphasised word.
• PPV: Pray-per-verse
Read through a passage, but after reading each verse, spend two minutes going around and praying through that verse for the nation/people.
Especially look in the Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah for good passages to pray through for a nation/people. Click here for an example Praying Scripture Isaiah 12
vi) “Rapid fire/Popcorn prayer”
A good way to keep people “on their toes” while they pray is to keep the prayers moving. Some people have a tendency to pray long, drawn out prayers, which is OK in some cases, but in others it prohibits other people from enjoying sharing what the Spirit is teaching them! For three to five minutes, pick a topic and encourage people to keep their prayers between 10-15 seconds long.
vii) “Intentional listening”
As a group, listen quietly to God for about 10 minutes, asking for pictures or verses. Then share what was heard and pray into resulting themes.
viii) “Praying in the middle” (best with big groups)
Get your theme (city/nation/people) and ask two people who have a focus for that theme to stand facing each other with a gap in between them. When the first person begins to pray for their focus (i.e. the women, the poor, the hungry), anyone else who feels led to agree with them in prayer will come and stand behind them.
After the first person finishes praying, the person behind them will begin praying for that same theme. This will repeat until the line is exhausted, upon which the second person standing in the middle begins praying for their focus, and the process is repeated.
When one of the first two people is finished, they will step away and another person will step in their place with a different focus.
This is also best kept to quicker prayers (30 seconds to a minute) to keep the lines moving.
ix) “Praying the 4 Es”
Divide the time into four, and pray through the 4 Es – Encouraging Prayer (pray for more pray-ers, for regular persistent prayer to grow), Enabling Christians (pray for people to see the opportunities, to grow in confidence, to build friendships and share Jesus), Envisioning the Christian community (pray for church leaders by name, that they would have a vision for the Muslim community), Engaging Muslims (pray for building bridges with local Muslim communities , opportunities to reach out in love and share Jesus, for disciples who will reach their own community)
x) “Mapping the area”
Have a large map of the area. Together, mark on it the mosques and pray into that. Then repeat with community centres, schools, churches, etc. Or with a larger group, have 2 prepared maps with mosques and churches on one, community centres and schools on another and split into two groups. Each group take a few minutes to share what they know about these places and then pray into that. Then move onto next map and repeat.
xi) “M&Ms”
Have a bag of M&Ms (which have 5 colours). List 5 spheres of influence eg mosques, schools, women, friends, churches and have a colour key. Pick a M&M and pray for the relevant topic.
xii) “Drawing prayers”
On individual sheets of paper, encourage people to declare things over the people/nation/town and write them down and/or write out prayers. Or have people write down/draw prayer requests for all to see on one large sheet so that everyone can pray into them together.
For more prayer ideas for weekly/monthly meetings Click here
Source: Adapted from a basic concept of the 24/7 Prayer Network
